Classic Arsenal Cup Defeats - Part 1 - York City 1 Arsenal 0 FA Cup 4th Round 26/01/1985
HOUCH, THAT HURT
BACK IN the mid 1980s Arsenal and cup shocks seemed to go hand in hand. Following Walsall's League Cup win at Highbury in November 1983, a defeat which ultimately cost manager Terry Neill his job, it was Middlesbrough up next in the FA Cup two months later.
When Neill's successor Don Howe's saw his then Division One leaders lose at second division Oxford United in the League Cup the following season, the vultures were circling ahead of Arsenal's FA Cup 3rd round tie at Fourth Division Hereford United in January 1985.
A potential banana skin was narrowly avoided despite a late Hereford onslaught which brought an equaliser to Tony Woodcock's first half volley and several presentable chances for the Bulls to win it.
In the replay at Highbury 10 days later, Arsenal easily triumphed 7-2 but it merely delayed the inevitable as next up was a tricky tie at Division Three side York City.
With northern England in the grip of a winter freeze, Torvill and Dean would have looked more at home on the frozen Bootham Crescent pitch than Arsenal's superstars.
So bad was the weather that most other ties in the FA Cup that day had been postponed but York were determined to ensure this one went ahead.
The Minstermen had been enjoying something of a revival under the new management team of Denis Smith and Viv Busby and they knew this was their best opportunity to create a little piece of FA Cup history.
The contrast between the sides could not have been greater. Only two of York's starting XI had cost a transfer fee, Keith Walwyn and Keith Houchen costing the combined total of just 19,000, against the £4.5 million Gunners team including eight internationals.
But the pitch was a real leveler on the day and the Arsenal players did not look comfortable from the start as the hosts just shaded a fairly nondescript first half.
The Gunners did create the best two chances soon after the restart as young York goalkeeper Mick Astbury denied both Woodcock and Paul Mariner, but at the other end it took last ditch defensive headers from Viv Anderson and Tommy Caton to keep out the dangerous Walwyn.
With time ticking down towards 90 minutes it appeared as though Arsenal had escaped with another replay but York mounted one final attack.
As teenage striker Martin Butler crossed from the right, Steve Williams, a recent Arsenal signing from Southampton with a reputation for being a bit of a hothead, tangled with Houchen right on the edge of the penalty area.
The Arsenal players were convinced the offence, if indeed it was an offence at all, had been committed outside the area, but referee Don Shaw pointed to the spot and York had the chance they had been praying for.
It was Houchen himself who stepped up to face John Lukic rather than usual penalty taker John MacPhail, and he sent the Arsenal goalkeeper the wrong way to send the 10,000 Bootham Crescent crowd wild.
The restart was delayed as fans had spilled onto the pitch but time was now very much against Howe's men. They launched one last desperate long ball into the York area which fell invitingly for Williams, desperate for redemption, but his pile-driver struck teammate Mariner and Arsenal were out.
So a season that had once promised so much for Arsenal ended in yet another cup humiliation.
However, this would be the last time in the decade they would suffer a cup shock of this nature and it would not be until 1992, when they lost at Wrexham, that they would once again go out to a team from a lower division.
For me the pitch that day made all the difference in this match. The Arsenal players just never got to grips with it, quite literally, but the penalty decision was still very harsh.
Overall it was a dreadful away day, one of the worst I can remember following Arsenal, and lets not forget in the 1980s there was plenty of competition for that particular title.
We arrived in York off the train at lunchtime with snow everywhere unsure if the game would even go ahead, and we were then greeted by a few hundred Leeds United fans who wanted to welcome us to Yorkshire in their own unique way.
With all other matches in the area postponed it felt as though fans from every club in the north of England was there that day to have a go at us which added injury to the inevitable insult.
Afterwards the trains back to London were delayed due to the weather so we did not arrive home until gone midnight; cold, miserable and desperate for the season to end, but thankfully late enough to have missed the highlights on MOTD.
I really don't think I could have sat through that again so soon.
Coming up next time I look back on the career of a player who played a big part in this FA Cup shocker but bounced back to help us win the Littlewoods Cup just two years later; Steve Williams. Look out for that one coming soon.
BACK IN the mid 1980s Arsenal and cup shocks seemed to go hand in hand. Following Walsall's League Cup win at Highbury in November 1983, a defeat which ultimately cost manager Terry Neill his job, it was Middlesbrough up next in the FA Cup two months later.
A potential banana skin was narrowly avoided despite a late Hereford onslaught which brought an equaliser to Tony Woodcock's first half volley and several presentable chances for the Bulls to win it.
In the replay at Highbury 10 days later, Arsenal easily triumphed 7-2 but it merely delayed the inevitable as next up was a tricky tie at Division Three side York City.
With northern England in the grip of a winter freeze, Torvill and Dean would have looked more at home on the frozen Bootham Crescent pitch than Arsenal's superstars.
So bad was the weather that most other ties in the FA Cup that day had been postponed but York were determined to ensure this one went ahead.
The Minstermen had been enjoying something of a revival under the new management team of Denis Smith and Viv Busby and they knew this was their best opportunity to create a little piece of FA Cup history.
The contrast between the sides could not have been greater. Only two of York's starting XI had cost a transfer fee, Keith Walwyn and Keith Houchen costing the combined total of just 19,000, against the £4.5 million Gunners team including eight internationals.
But the pitch was a real leveler on the day and the Arsenal players did not look comfortable from the start as the hosts just shaded a fairly nondescript first half.
The Gunners did create the best two chances soon after the restart as young York goalkeeper Mick Astbury denied both Woodcock and Paul Mariner, but at the other end it took last ditch defensive headers from Viv Anderson and Tommy Caton to keep out the dangerous Walwyn.
As teenage striker Martin Butler crossed from the right, Steve Williams, a recent Arsenal signing from Southampton with a reputation for being a bit of a hothead, tangled with Houchen right on the edge of the penalty area.
The Arsenal players were convinced the offence, if indeed it was an offence at all, had been committed outside the area, but referee Don Shaw pointed to the spot and York had the chance they had been praying for.
It was Houchen himself who stepped up to face John Lukic rather than usual penalty taker John MacPhail, and he sent the Arsenal goalkeeper the wrong way to send the 10,000 Bootham Crescent crowd wild.
The restart was delayed as fans had spilled onto the pitch but time was now very much against Howe's men. They launched one last desperate long ball into the York area which fell invitingly for Williams, desperate for redemption, but his pile-driver struck teammate Mariner and Arsenal were out.
However, this would be the last time in the decade they would suffer a cup shock of this nature and it would not be until 1992, when they lost at Wrexham, that they would once again go out to a team from a lower division.
For me the pitch that day made all the difference in this match. The Arsenal players just never got to grips with it, quite literally, but the penalty decision was still very harsh.
Overall it was a dreadful away day, one of the worst I can remember following Arsenal, and lets not forget in the 1980s there was plenty of competition for that particular title.
We arrived in York off the train at lunchtime with snow everywhere unsure if the game would even go ahead, and we were then greeted by a few hundred Leeds United fans who wanted to welcome us to Yorkshire in their own unique way.
With all other matches in the area postponed it felt as though fans from every club in the north of England was there that day to have a go at us which added injury to the inevitable insult.
Afterwards the trains back to London were delayed due to the weather so we did not arrive home until gone midnight; cold, miserable and desperate for the season to end, but thankfully late enough to have missed the highlights on MOTD.
I really don't think I could have sat through that again so soon.
Coming up next time I look back on the career of a player who played a big part in this FA Cup shocker but bounced back to help us win the Littlewoods Cup just two years later; Steve Williams. Look out for that one coming soon.
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